The Book

Mulengro

By: Charles de Lint

Characters:

Gypsies:

~Janfri la Yayal- (a.k.a. John Owczarek or Boshengro) A 45 year old fiddle player; Married into the Pataloeshti kumpania; a main character.
~Ola Faher- drabarni; works with the writer Jeff Owen; another main character
~Yojo la Kore- Janfri's "brother"; also married into the Pataloeshti kumpania.
~Big George Luluvo- Rom Baro (leader) of the Pataloeshti kumpania; 350 pounds; very respected within the gypsy community.

Gaje:

~Tom Shaw- A friend of Janfri; 47 years old; plays guitar with Janfri.
~Sergeant Patrick Briggs- "Paddy"; Sergeant on the Ottawa Police Force.
~Will Sandler- Briggs' partner on the Police Force.
~Jeff Owen- writer; a friend and buisness partner of Ola.
~Zach Acheson- (a.k.a. Dr. Rainbow) An out-of-date hippy, who ends up being a lot of help to Ola in the book.

Some Rom Words to Know:

~Draba- magic
~Drabarni- one who works with medicine or magic
~Gaje- non-gypsies
~kumpania- a group of Rom traveling or living together in a community
~marhime- ceremonially defiled; unclean
~patrin- information symbol
~prikaza- bad luck; misfortune
~Rom Baro- the leader of a kumpania; literally "big Gypsy" or "important Gypsy".
~Rom- another name for a gypsy.

Setting / Background:

This book is set in Canada, and tells about the culture and the lives of the Rom. Gypsies are known to be beggars and thieves. But the story of how the Rom started explains their state of mind:

"When Jesus was going to be crucified, a Rom blacksmith who was a slave was ordered by the Roman soldiers to make four nails. There was to be one nail for each hand, one for the feet, and one for the condemned man's heart. The Rom stalled and stalled until the soldiers whipped him. Then he made the four nails. He called to God and asked Him to help the Rom, but God's only reply was tears and the Rom cried with him. When he was to deliver the nails, he swallowed one of them and told the soldiers he had lost it. God, when he saw that the Rom had swallowed the nail meant for Jesus' heart, said: "Rom, you are free to go and travel anywhere. You can steal your food and take what you need to live. " And that, the old Rom relating the tale would say with satisfaction, is why Gypsies travel and why they steal" (De Lint 40).

Summary:

In the book, it begins to tell three different stories, which end up tying together in the end.

The marhime symbol

The first story begins: "Janfri Yayal watched his house burn down without expression". Janfri was a fiddle player, who was just previously at a rehersal for the album him and his friend, Tom Shaw, were making, when he came home to find his house set ablaze. He was surprised at what he was seeing - and it wasn't the enormous fire. There had been a patrin painted on the side of his house. It meant marhime. But that meant nothing to the gaje. It meant something to Janfri though; he was a rom. Janfri had to hide his being a gypsy by giving himself a fake name (John Owczarek), buying a gaje house, and mingling with the gaje themselves. But apparently, that was not good enough. When you are marhime, it basically means that you have sinned against God, but Janfri had done nothing to be labeled like that. When you are labeled marhime, you are not to talk to your family or friends - unless you want them to become marhime as well. Yet, Janfri's "brother", Yojo, found him, and brought him to Big George to see what should be done. Big George decided that they would have a massive meeting that included all the Rom Baros from many places. During this meeting, a wise and respected drabarni spoke up. Her name was Old Lyuba. She tells Janfri that he must go and kill Mulengro (an evil man who believes that God had given him the job to cleanse the Rom by killing all who are marked marhime). This is an almost impossible task, because Mulengro is a spirit; nobody knows how to kill a ghost. So she tells him to see her the next day. But that does not happen, because Mulengro decides to visit her during the night. He kills her after she refuses to help him complete his work. But instead of her leaving Janfri with nothing, she leaves him a message telling him where he should go for help. Not knowing exactly what the message means, he decides to go to some close friends, Tibo and Ursula Lee. They tell him to go into Rideau Ferry, to find a woman with the last name of Rouge (Ola's writing name). He goes to Rideau Ferry with Yojo, only to meet up with Jeff Owen, her buisness partner. Apparently, Ola has gone missing.....




In the second story, we are introduced to Ola and Jeff. They are friends and buisness partners who produce books on fortune-telli

Gypsy Cards

ng. Jeff doesn't believe half of what he writes, but unknowing to him, Ola is really a true drabarni. She is a secret Rom, just like Janfri. But the only difference, is that she uses and believes in magic, while Janfri does not. When Ola is alone, she uses her magic to pick things up and move things. She also talks to her cat.....and her cat talks back too. Ola also has visions. Sometime she sees simple things like what's going to happen that day, and sometimes she even sees people dying. One night she fell asleep only to find herself having a vision of Old Lyuba and Mulengro. She watches him kill the old woman, when all of a sudden, he turns around and looks straight at Ola. He now labels her marhime, and his next mission is to hunt her down. In the meantime, Jeff has been sitting in a bar minding his own buisness. All of a sudden, the two town bullies come in looking for a fight. They are brothers named Bob and Stan Gourlay. WIthin a few minutes all three of them are outside, Jeff on the ground with Bob and Stan beating him to death. They stop beating

Ola's cat Boboko

him, only to say that they're going to go pay Ola a 'visit'. (Their real intentions are to rape and possibly kill her). So they take of in their truck, while Jeff becomes unconscience on the sidewalk. Ola is still asleep when Bob and Stan arrive. She finally wakes up to find Stan on top of her. So she uses her draba to shove a log into Stan's head, killing him. She scares Bob away, and ends up having to bury Stan. Then she runs away with only herself and her cat. They end up at a place called Mill Pond, where they meet and out-of-date hippy named Dr. Rainbow, whom Ola calls Zach (his real name). He lets her and Boboko (Ola's cat) stay there for as long as they like. While all this is happening, Jeff wakes up in the bar waitress's house. She took him to her house to take care of him. Right when he gets up, he tries to call Ola but there is no answer. He's terrified for her. So he and the bar waitress, Jackie, decide to go up to Ola's house and see if she's okay. When they get there, they find some of her stuff missing; either the Gourlay brothers kidnapped her, or she left on her own. But as they search the house, Jeff walks into the room where Ola killed Stan. Even though there is absolutely no evidence of a murder, Jeff feels weird. All of a sudden, he blanks out only to see the ghostly, distorted face of Stan Gourlay - exactly the way he looked when he was killed. Jeff freaks out and doesn't know what to do. Him and Jackie decide to leave, and go to the Gourlay's house to see if they really have kidnapped Ola. They search the house, and find nothing. So Jeff went back to Jackie's place to rest, while she went back to the bar. Then as Jackie is working, two men walk in the door asking for Jeff. She calls him up, and he comes back to the bar. The two gentlemen introduce themselves as Janfri Yayal and Yojo Kore.....




In the third story, we meet with Sergeant Patrick Briggs and his partner Will Sanders. They are trying to solve one of the most bizarre cases. There have been multiple, brutal muders happening within the city. The peculiar thing is, that all the victims of the murders are gypsies. Nobody knows what is being used to kill these people. Maybe foreign weapons, or animals. Or is it something else? Briggs and Will are always just a few steps behind. But eventually, they find out first hand what's really been going on.




In the end, all three stories tie together. The book finishes off with a pretty good ending. But I'll leave that up to you to find out what it is exactly......

Why is this an outstanding book?

I think this is an outstanding book, because it takes you out of your own little world. It gives you a little bit of an insight into a different kind of culture. Personally, I found it very interesting. The book also includes a glossary for all the Romany words that are used in it, which I found very cool. I would recommend this book to people who would like to read an in depth story about two gypsies who end up coming to gether in the end to fight for what they believe.

Work Cited

De Lint, Charles. Mulengro. New York: Ace Fantasy Books, October 1985.

Mulengro Book Picture - __http://www.sfsite.com/charlesdelint/coverart/mulengro_orb.jpg__

Cross and Nails Picture - __http://www.northernpeaks.net/crossNails.jpg/crossNails-full.jpg__

Swastika Picture - __http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/carolrb/hinduism/swastika.gif__

Tarrot Cards Picture - __http://www.tarot-decks.com/images/endora02.gif__

Calico Cat Picture -http://www.dkimages.com/discover/previews/763/445634.JPGP|http://www.dkimages.com/discover/previews/763/445634.JPG

Police Hat Picture - __http://www.wildgoose.ac/images/productImages/3531/1_large.jpg__